The beneath is a direct excerpt of Marty’s Bent Issue #1181: “BIP21 is a no brainer.“ Sign up for the newsletter here.
For the time being there’s a huge UX hurdle that exists for customers of various bitcoin pockets software program suppliers.
One of many extra illuminating talks on the Bitcoin Takeover occasion that was held on the Bitcoin Commons right here in Austin final Friday was a panel dialogue between Lisa Neigut (c-lightning, Blockstream), Rockstar Dev (Strike, which makes use of lnd), and Miles Suter (Money App, which makes use of LDK) led by Matt Odell concerning the challenges of the interoperability between totally different implementations and general UX when utilizing the Lightning Community. Through the dialogue (which ought to be made public quickly) the panel turned to the subject of BIP21, a BIP that I used to be unaware of however am very enthusiastic about after coming to know it.
For the time being there’s a huge UX hurdle that exists for customers of various bitcoin pockets software program suppliers. The UX round sending and receiving bitcoin transactions on-chain and by way of the Lightning Community. Some wallets are on-chain solely, some are lighting solely, and a few permit customers to make use of each however power you to manually shuffle between the 2 when sending and receiving. Enter BIP21, which goals to repair this UX hurdle by giving customers optionality when sending. BIP21 would allow QR codes that allow pockets suppliers to incorporate each a lightning bill and an on-chain bitcoin pockets tackle in a single place.
What is required to push BIP21 ahead as a typical is for extra lightning community wallets to start supporting it. Proper now, when a bitcoin person utilizing a BIP21 enabled pockets scans a QR code of a pockets that does not have BIP21 enabled they obtain an error code that may be complicated and results in UX friction. If extra lightning community wallets allow BIP21 and permit customers who’re solely sending transactions on-chain to be supplied with a fallback on-chain tackle it might convey an finish to this UX friction. One of the best half is that BIP21 is backwards suitable, so there isn’t a means during which it may disenfranchise the person within the coma who wakes up a decade from now and broadcasts a transaction from a pockets he hasn’t touched in a few years.
Past this, BIP21 allows customers the power to make a aware resolution about whether or not they wish to ship by way of the protocol layer or the lightning community. If carried out, this could get rid of the necessity for various on-chain and LN UI tabs and make the transacting course of a lot smoother between totally different wallets.
Step one towards realizing these advantages is making it so every pockets can learn BIP21 QR codes. From there, every venture can start to create experiences that permit customers to generate BIP21 cost codes. You need to get huge assist for scanning earlier than it is smart to get huge assist for producing these cost codes. Here is to hoping pockets suppliers make this a precedence within the close to future.
